第 37 页

was slithering up from its depths. 3 1

Harry backed away until he hit the dark Chamber wall, and as he shut

his eyes tight he felt Fawkes' wing sweep his cheek as he took flight.

Harry wanted to shout, "Don't leave me!" but what chance did a

phoenix have against the king of serpents?

Something huge hit the stone floor of the Chamber. Harry felt it

shudder - he knew what was happening, he could sense it, could

almost see the giant serpent uncoiling itself from Slytherin's mouth.

Then he heard Riddle's hissing voice:

"Kill him. "

The basilisk was moving toward Harry; he could hear its heavy body

slithering heavily across the dusty floor. Eyes still tightly shut, Harry

began to run blindly sideways, his hands outstretched, feeling his way -

Voldemort was laughing

Harry tripped. He fell hard onto the stone and tasted blood the serpent

was barely feet from him, he could hear it coming

There was a loud, explosive spitting sound right above him, and then

something heavy hit Harry so hard that he was smashed into the wall.

Waiting for fangs to sink through his body he heard more mad hissing,

something thrashing wildly off the pillars

He couldn't help it - he opened his eyes wide enough to squint at what

was going on.

The enormous serpent, bright, poisonous green, thick as an oak trunk,

had raised itself high in the air and its great blunt head was weaving

drunkenly between the pillars. As Harry trembled, ready to close his

eyes if it turned, he saw what had distracted the snake.

Fawkes was soaring around its head, and the basilisk was snapping

furiously at him with fangs long and thin as sabers

272

Fawkes dived. His long golden beak sank out of sight and a

*318*

sudden shower of dark blood spattered the floor. The snake's tail

thrashed, narrowly missing Harry, and before Harry could shut his

eyes, it turned - Harry looked straight into its face and saw that its

eyes, both its great, bulbous yellow eyes, had been punctured by the

phoenix; blood was streaming to the floor, and the snake was spitting

in agony.

"NO!" Harry heard Riddle screaming. "LEAVE THE BIRD! LEAVE

THE BIRD! THE BOY IS BEHIND YOU. YOU CAN STILL SMELL

HIM. KILL HIMI"

The blinded serpent swayed, confused, still deadly. Fawkes was

circling its head, piping his eerie song, jabbing here and there at its

scaly nose as the blood poured from its ruined eyes.

"Help me, help me," Harry muttered wildly, "someone - anyone

The snake's tail whipped across the floor again. Harry ducked.

Something soft hit his face.

The basilisk had swept the Sorting Hat into Harry's arms. Harry

seized it. It was all he had left, his only chance - he rammed it onto his

head and threw himself flat onto the floor as the basilisk's tail swung

over him again.

Help me - help me - Harry thought, his eyes screwed tight under the hat.

Please help me

There was no answering voice. Instead, the hat contracted, as though

an invisible hand was squeezing it very tightly.

Something very hard and heavy thudded onto the top of Harry's head,

almost knocking him out. Stars winking in front of his eyes, he grabbed

the top of the hat to pull it off and felt something long and hard

beneath it.

3 19

273

A gleaming silver sword had appeared inside the hat, its handle

glittering with rubies the size of eggs.

"KILL THE BOY! LEAVE THE BIRD! THE BOY IS BEHIND YOU.

SNIFF -- SMELL HIM."

Harry was on his feet, ready. The basilisk's head was falling, its body

coiling around, hitting pillars as it twisted to face him. He could see the

vast, bloody eye sockets, see the mouth stretching wide, wide enough

to swallow him whole, lined with fangs long as his sword, thin,

glittering, venomous

It lunged blindly -- Harry dodged and it hit the Chamber wall. It lunged

again, and its forked tongue lashed Harry's side. He raised the sword

in both his hands

The basilisk lunged again, and this time its aim was true -- Harry threw

his whole weight behind the sword and drove it to the hilt into the roof

of the serpent's mouth

But as warm blood drenched Harry's arms, he felt a searing pain just

above his elbow. One long, poisonous fang was sinking deeper and

deeper into his arm and it splintered as the basilisk keeled over

sideways and fell, twitching, to the floor.

Harry slid down the wall. He gripped the fang that was spreading

poison through his body and wrenched it out of his arm. But he knew it

was too late. White-hot pain was spreading slowly and steadily from

the wound. Even as he dropped the fang and watched his own blood

soaking his robes, his vision went foggy. The Chamber was dissolving

in a whirl of dull color.

A patch of scarlet swam past, and Harry heard a soft clatter of claws

beside him.

"Fawkes," said Harry thickly. "You were fantastic, Fawkes . . . ."

1,520

He felt the bird lay its beautiful head on the spot where the serpent's

fang had pierced him.

274

He could hear echoing footsteps and then a dark shadow moved in

front of him.

"You're dead, Harry Potter," said Riddle's voice above him. "Dead.

Even Dumbledore's bird knows it. Do you see what he's doing, Potter?

He's crying."

Harry blinked. Fawke's head slid in and out of focus. Thick, pearly tears

were trickling down the glossy feathers.

"I'm going to sit here and watch you die, Harry Potter. Take your time.

I'm in no hurry."

Harry felt drowsy. Everything around him seemed to be spinning.

"So ends the famous Harry Potter," said Riddle's distant voice. "Alone

in the Chamber of Secrets, forsaken by his friends, defeated at last by

the Dark Lord he so unwisely challenged. You'll be back with your dear

Mudblood mother soon, Harry... She bought you twelve years of

borrowed time ... but Lord Voldemort got you in the end, as you knew

he must . . . ."

If this is dying, thought Harry, it's not so bad.

Even the pain was leaving him ....

But was this dying? Instead of going black, the Chamber seemed to be

coming back into focus. Harry gave his head a little shake and there was

Fawkes, still resting his head on Harry's arm. A pearly patch of tears was

shining all around the wound -- except that there was no wound

"Get away, bird," said Riddle's voice suddenly. "Get away from him

I said, get away --"

Harry raised his head. Riddle was pointing Harry's wand at

Fawkes; there was a bang like a gun, and Fawkes took flight again in a

whirl of gold and scarlet.

"Phoenix tears. - ." said Riddle quietly, staring at Harry's arm. "Of

course ... healing powers ... I forgot. . ."

275

He looked into Harry's face. "But it makes no difference. In fact, I

prefer it this way. Just you and me, Harry Potter ... you and me....

He raised the wand

Then, in a rush of wings, Fawkes had soared back overhead and

something fell into Harry's lap -- the diary.

For a split second, both Harry and Riddle, wand still raised, stared at it.

Then, without thinking, without considering, as though he had meant to

do it all along, Harry seized the basilisk fang on the floor next to him

and plunged it straight into the heart of the book.

There was a long, dreadful, piercing scream. Ink spurted out of the

diary in torrents, streaming over Harry's hands, flooding the floor.

Riddle was writhing and twisting, screaming and flailing and then

He had gone. Harry's wand fell to the floor with a clatter and there

was silence. Silence except for the steady drip drip of ink still oozing

from the diary. The basilisk venom had burned a sizzling hole right

through it.

Shaking all over, Harry pulled himself up. His head was spinning as

though he'd just traveled miles by Floo powder. Slowly, he gathered

together his wand and the Sorting Hat, and, with a huge tug, retrieved

the glittering sword from the roof of the basilisk's mouth.

Then came a faint moan from the end of the Chamber. Ginny was

stirring. As Harry hurried toward her, she sat up. Her bemused

1,522

eyes traveled from the huge form of the dead basilisk, over Harry, in

his blood-soaked robes, then to the diary in his hand. She drew a great,

shuddering gasp and tears began to pour down her face.

"Harry -- oh, Harry -- I tried to tell you at b-breakfast, but I c-couldn't

say it in front of Percy -- it was me, Harry -- but I -- I s-swear I ddiddt mean to -- R-Riddle made me, he t-took me over -- and - how

did you kill that -- that thing? W-where's Riddle? The last thing I r-

remember is him coming out of the diary --"

276

" It's all right," said Harry, holding up the diary, and showing Ginny the

fang hole, "Riddle's finished. Look! Him and the basilisk. C'mon,

Ginny, let's get out of here --"

"I'm going to be expelled!" Ginny wept as Harry helped her

awkwardly to her feet. "I've looked forward to coming to Hogwarts

ever since B-Bill came and n-now I'll have to leave and -- w-what'll

Mum and Dad say?"

Fawkes was waiting for them, hovering in the Chamber entrance.

Harry urged Ginny forward; they stepped over the motionless coils of

the dead basilisk, through the echoing gloom, and back into the tunnel.

Harry heard the stone doors close behind them with a soft hiss.

After a few minutes' progress up the dark tunnel, a distant sound of

slowly shifting rock reached Harry's ears.

"Ron!" Harry yelled, speeding up. "Ginny's okay! I've got her!"

He heard Ron give a strangled cheer, and they turned the next bend to

see his eager face staring through the sizable gap he had managed to

make in the rock fall.

"Ginny!" Ron thrust an arm through the gap in the rock to pull

321,3

her through first. "You're alive! I don't believe it! What happened?"

How - what -- where did that bird come from?"

Fawkes had swooped through the gap after Ginny.

"He's Dumbledore's," said Harry, squeezing through himself

"How come you've got a sword?" said Ron, gaping at the glittering

weapon in Harry's hand.

"I'll explain when we get out of here," said Harry with a sideways

glance at Ginny, who was crying harder than ever.

"But --"

277

"Later," Harry said shortly. He didn't think it was a good idea to tell

Ron yet who'd been opening the Chamber, not in front of Ginny,

anyway. "Where's Lockhart?"

"Back there," said Ron, still looking puzzled but jerking his head up the

tunnel toward the pipe. "He's in a bad way. Come and see."

Led by Fawkes, whose wide scarlet wings emitted a soft golden glow

in the darkness, they walked all the way back to the mouth of the pipe.

Gilderoy Lockhart was sitting there, humming placidly to himself.

"His memory's gone," said Ron. "The Memory Charm backfired. Hit

him instead of us. Hasn't got a clue who he is, or where he is, or who

we are. I told him to come and wait here. He's a danger to himself"

Lockhart peered good-naturedly up at them all.

"Hello," he said. "Odd sort of place, this, isn't it? Do you live here?"

"No," said Ron, raising his eyebrows at Harry.

Harry bent down and looked up the long, dark pipe.

"Have you thought how we're going to get back up this?" he said to

Ron.

*324*

Ron shook his head, but Fawkes the phoenix had swooped past Harry

and was now fluttering in front of him, his beady eyes bright in the

dark. He was waving his long golden tail feathers. Harry looked

uncertainly at him.

"He looks like he wants you to grab hold. . ." said Ron, looking

perplexed. "But you're much too heavy for a bird to pull up there -"

"Fawkes," said Harry, "isn't an ordinary bird." He turned quickly to the

others. "We've got to hold on to each other. Ginny, grab Ron's hand.

Professor Lockhart --"

"He means you," said Ron sharply to Lockhart.

278

"You hold Ginny's other hand --"

Harry tucked the sword and the Sorting Hat into his belt, Ron took

hold of the back of Harry's robes, and Harry reached out and took

hold of Fawkes's strangely hot tail feathers.

An extraordinary lightness seemed to spread through his whole body

and the next second, in a rush of wings, they were flying upward

through the pipe. Harry could hear Lockhart dangling below him,

saying, "Amazing! Amazing! This is just like magic!" The chill air was

whipping through Harry's hair, and before he'd stopped enjoying the

ride, it was over -- all four of them were hitting the wet floor of

Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, and as Lockhart straightened his hat, the

sink that hid the pipe was sliding back into place.

Myrtle goggled at them.

"You're alive," she said blankly to Harry.

"There's no need to sound so disappointed," he said grimly, wiping

flecks of blood and slime off his glasses.

* 325*

"Oh, well ... Id just been thinking ... if you had died, you'd have been

welcome to share my toilet," said Myrtle, blushing silver.

"Urgh!" said Ron as they left the bathroom for the dark, deserted

corridor outside. "Harry! I think Myrtle's grown fond of you! You've

got competition, Ginny!"

But tears were still flooding silently down Ginny's face.

"Where now?" said Ron, with an anxious look at Ginny. Harry pointed.